Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick wrote the second part of his Elite Snipers 101 article and while it’s a great read from start to finish, his take on Montreal forward Max Pacioretty is perhaps what stands out the most.

When I think of Max, I think of the most underrated player in the NHL. Only three players have scored more goals than him over the past three seasons — and these aren’t all pretty power play goals. Most of his goals come in 5-on-5 situations where space is tight, and I know he had 10 game-winners last season. Max is similar to Tavares in the way he works in dirty areas. It blows my mind that he’s not talked about more because he’s such a great scorer.

Fair enough, so let’s talk about him a bit.

First off, to Quick’s point: He is of course correct that there are just three players that have netted more goals than Pacioretty over the last three seasons: Alex Ovechkin (136), Steven Stamkos (97), and Joe Pavelski (94). Pacioretty is tied with Perry for fourth place with 91 markers over that span. Granted, Perry has played in five fewer games, but if that’s going to be brought up, then the fact that Pavelski has participated in 15 more contests than Pacioretty has to be raised as well.

Quick also brought up power-play goals and sure enough just 21 of Pacioretty’s 91 markers have been scored with the man advantage, which is significantly less than the players ahead of him. Still, if you want to just look at five-on-five markers over the last three seasons, then Pacioretty’s still tied for fourth place with 55, it’s just that now it’s Rick Nash (64), Perry (62), and Ovechkin (56) ahead of him.

Whatever method you’re using though, it’s clear that Pacioretty is one of the top snipers in the game today, but if he’s not as popular a subject as some of the other players that have been roughly as productive as him, then perhaps there’s a simple explanation. Unlike Ovechkin, Stamkos, Nash, or Perry, the Canadiens forward hasn’t had a monster campaign yet. He’s around their level in terms of overall production because he’s been consistently great in recent seasons, but he hasn’t finished in the top-three in goals yet or being a major contender for the Hart Trophy. Pacioretty also hasn’t made his mark in a playoff run yet.

That’s a theory at least, but it doesn’t take anything away from him. Meanwhile, Montreal has him at a $4.5 million annual cap hit through 2018-19 while Pavelski is at $6 million through 2018-19, Stamkos has one campaign left at $7.5 million, Perry is at roughly $8.6 million through 2020-21, and Ovechkin is at about $9.5 million through 2020-21.

John Weisbrod joined the Vancouver Canucks to serve as a vice president of player personnel early on in the franchise’s front office shakeup. That process continued today, impacting several members of the organization and resulting in him getting the title of assistant general manager.

It’s a job he’s familiar with as he spent three years in that role with the Calgary Flames. Before that he served as the Boston Bruins’ director of professional and collegiate scouting from 2006 to 2011.

This move comes after Vancouver fired assistant general managers Laurence Gilman and Lorne Henning last month.

“We have made some difficult decisions to our roster and staff recently after a thorough review of the team,” said Linden at the time. “These are not easy decisions, nor were they taken lightly. But they’re important as we transition this team and build for the future.”

The Hockey Operations department also named Chris Gear Vice President and General Counsel, Vancouver Canucks and Canucks Sports & Entertainment (CS&E). Judd Brackett was named Director of Amateur Scouting, Ryan Johnson was named Assistant Director Player Development and Mike Addesa joins the club as an Amateur Scout. The Human Performance department named Rick Celebrini Director, Rehabilitation and Jon Sanderson as Head Athletic Therapist.

Hoffman only had 29 games worth of NHL experience going into the 2014-15 campaign so whether or not he can maintain or build upon his 48-point campaign is in question. Of course, the same could be said for Stone, who had 64 points in his first full NHL campaign and received a three-year, $10.5 million deal from Ottawa, but Senators assistant GM Pierre Dorion feels there are some noteworthy differences between the two young forwards.

“Mike’s road to the NHL has been a bit longer than Mark Stone,” Dorion told the Ottawa Citizen. “Stone was one of our best players in the second half last year and his play never tailed off. Mike’s play tailed off a bit in the second half (two goals in the last 16 games) and we want to see if Mike can do it again … we have a lot of confidence and faith Mike can do that next year.”

If Hoffman does do it again though, then the sample size arguments will weaken. At that point he’ll be in line for a considerable raise and a mid or long-term deal would likely come with a higher price tag than it would have been this summer.

The Canucks believe recently acquired Brandon Sutter is a “foundation piece” and now they’ve ensured that he’ll be spending his prime years with the team.

Vancouver announced that Sutter has agreed to a five-year, $21.875 million contract extension. He still has a season remaining on his two-year, $6.6 million deal, so Sutter is now under Vancouver’s control through 2020-21.

Sutter, 26, is a two-way center that scored 21 goals and 33 points in 80 contests with Pittsburgh last season while playing primarily on the Penguins’ third line. He has 98 goals and 185 points in 495 career games.

The Canucks acquired him on July 28 along with a third-round draft pick in exchange for forward Nick Bonino, defenseman Adam Clendening and a second-round pick.

In Vancouver, Sutter is projected to play on the second line so that 20-year-old Bo Horvat is facing less pressure.

Daniel Negreanu has made a fortune playing Poker and he plans to put some of that money towards buying a portion of Bill Foley’s Las Vegas NHL franchise.

Of course, that franchise doesn’t exist yet and while the league plans to focus exclusively on bids from Foley and Quebecor (Quebec City), there’s no guarantee that the NHL will expand at all in the near future. Still, Negreanu would put the odds of Las Vegas being granted a team — which he thinks should be called the Rat Pack — at 99.9%.

“I just don’t see it not happening,” he told the Toronto Sun. “We have a solid owner, an arena (nearing completion on the Strip with 17,500 seats for hockey) and we sold 13,000 season tickets.

“Vegas has 2.2 million people. It’s a sports town. We’ve been starving for a professional franchise of any kind for many years.”

Negreanu added that in addition to owning a stake in the franchise, he has interest in having a hockey talk show.

If Las Vegas gets a team, it’s possible that will begin play as early as 2016-17.